Twelve weeks after the Major League Baseball season was set to start, there are finally signs that MLB and the MLB Players’ Association can compromise on a “jointly developed framework” for the 2020 season, per a statement released by commissioner Rob Manfred Wednesday afternoon. This follows a Jon Heyman report that the two sides were “closing in” on a deal to play the 2020 season.
Heyman’s optimism was quickly tempered by a union statement: “reports of an agreement are false.” Even so, the tone of these negotiations has quickly shifted in a positive direction.
This week began with perhaps the biggest black eye that MLB has endured since the 1994 strike.